Tick Tock from the Cobalt Season

Unholy Week – Growing Jesus

My good friend CJ stopped by this afternoon with a gift for the Easter Celebration:

My very own Jesus I can grow!

It supposedly can grow to 600% it size! Unfortunately, reading the directions on the back let us know that it could take up to 10 days to reach its full size.

We’ll keep you updated [...]

Holy Week: Saturday – Silence

The only thing heard on that Saturday… was silence.
The following excerpt is taken from Pete Rollins thought provoking book, How (Not) to Speak of God.
For the contemporary Christian it is all but impossible to reflect upon the crucifixion without simultaneously bringing to mind the resurrection. While separate temporal events, they are so irrevocably [...]

Holy Week: Good Friday – Death Dies

Palm Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Maundy Thursday
Good Friday’s Reading: Mark 15

When Jesus died on Friday, the world shook. The sun stopped. Creation stood still. Everyone Jesus loved waited in anxious bewilderment – only failed Messiahs hung on crosses. Even Jesus wondered if God had given up. Love died on that imperial [...]

Holy Week: Maunday Thursday – The Pivot of Hope

A Maundy Thursday Prayer by Walter Brueggemann
The Pivot of Hope

This day of dread and betrayal and denial
causes a pause in out busyness.
Who would have thought that you would take

this eighth so of Jesse

to become the pivot of hope in our ancient memory?

Who would have thought that you would take

this uncredentialed

Galilean rabbi

to become the pivot of [...]

Holy Week: Maundy Thursday – The Last Supper

Palm Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday…
Maundy Thursday – Read: Mark 14:12-72

a liturgy for maundy thursday
where we walk, we walk in the crap left by others, by ourselves, the mess of human lives, the comings and goings of a wasteful, corrupt and selfish world, we wallow in the dirt and the hurt, oblivious to the stink and [...]

Holy Week: More than Peeps!

Mark Van Steenwyk has a great post called the Scandal of Easter at Jesus Manifesto that I think resonates with many of us who grew up as “low church evangelicals.” Plus, don’t tell my wife, I’m in total agreement that Peeps are nasty!
Easter is coming. On Sunday, we remember the day that our [...]

Holy Week: Wednesday – Jesus Anointed

You are invited to join me this Holy Week to follow Mark’s day by day account of Jesus’ final days. If you missed the previous days, you can check them out here: Palm Sunday, Monday, Tuesday.
Wednesday – Read: Mark 14:1-11

The Chief Priests wanted him dead, Judas wanted to exploit him and the unnamed woman [...]

Holy Week: Tuesday – Paying Taxes

Read: Mark 11:20-13:37

The longest part of the narrative during Holy Week takes place on Tuesday, spanning three chapters.
About two thirds of Tuesday consists of conflict with the temple authorities and their associates. The remaining third (chap. 13) warns of the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple and speaks of the coming of the Son [...]

Holy Week: Monday – In Between the Fig Trees

Read: Mark 11:12-26

With the help of Tom Wright, we see that…
By itself, the Temple incident is ambiguous. Many people have thought that Jesus was simply protesting against commercialization. On this view, he only intended to clean up the Temple – to stop all this non-religious activity, and leave it as a place for [...]